Changing consumer habits and improved efficiency standards have led to a dramatic reduction in energy consumption by cable TV and broadband equipment, an independent audit report has found.

Over the past eight years, set-top box energy consumption has declined 52%, according to recent research from independent auditor D+R International, falling from 32.0 Terawatt-hours in 2012 to 15.2 TWh in 2020. The improvements come after members of the pay TV industry struck a voluntary agreement in 2012 aimed at improving the energy efficiency of set-top boxes, the devices used to deliver cable and satellite service to home television sets. The voluntary agreement came as the industry was facing the threat of regulation from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of California, as set-top boxes were viewed at the time as energy vampires.

The report cites several factors driving the reduced energy consumption, including operators' commitments to procure energy efficient boxes. But another major driver is the shift away from DVRs, the most energy-intensive category of set-top boxes. Purchases of DVRs dropped from 12.7 million in 2014 to 1.7 million in 2020 as operators moved from offering a DVR for each television to whole-home and cloud-based DVR services. Whole-home services use one DVR per home, while cloud services do not use DVR set-top boxes at all.

Consumers are also moving away from set-top boxes more generally, instead using apps to access their pay TV content. Between falling pay TV subscriber numbers and a rise in alternative devices, the combined number of set-top boxes installed for traditional cable, direct broadcast satellite and telco video platforms in the U.S. is on pace to fall to 162 million by the end of 2021, a 15% reduction year over year, according to July projections from Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence.

By 2025, installed set-top boxes are set to drop to 78 million units, Kagan estimates.

D+R International noted that it is reasonable to expect that the shift to apps is net positive from an energy-efficiency perspective, as any increase in energy to support streaming will most likely be more than offset by the significant energy savings resulting from decreased set-top box production and deployment.

Beyond set-top boxes, industry players had also struck a voluntary agreement targeting small network equipment such as modems and routers. The report by D+R found that over 99% of new modems, routers and other internet equipment sold in 2020 for U.S. residential broadband subscribers met the new energy efficiency goals of the voluntary agreement.

The agreement was developed and implemented by the Consumer Technology Association, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, and CableLabs. Signatories include major broadband internet service providers — including Altice USA Inc., AT&T Inc., Lumen Technologies Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. — as well as major manufacturers of small network equipment, including CommScope Holding Co. Inc. and Plume Design Inc.